Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

I don’t believe that search is the only answer in 2010 as it was in 2000. They bought distribution and engineering talent. My take was that this follows three trends: a) customer involvement in product design, b) mass customization [e.g. There is also another inherent weakness. No big surprise. Good deal for all.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Affiliate Valuation San Francisco 271

Steve Blank

MAY 5, 2016

Prior to her 21 years as an educator, Doris Korda spent 15 years as an engineer-turned-entrepreneur in the cowboy days of the high tech industry. That sounds like a simple thing, but back then, in the tech world, it was mostly engineers talking tech, bits and bytes. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Brazil 158

Brazil Entrepreneur Cleveland Cofounder 158

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 11, 2013

Before this occurs, the sales process is a craft or an art - custom-made by the founder or evangelist sales VP. You dive deep into a customer development process, working closely with a few customers who feed you requirements and are willing to trial an imperfect product that is evolving quickly.

Sales 50

Sales Technical Review Software Review B2B 50

Steve Blank

MAY 5, 2016

Prior to her 21 years as an educator, Doris Korda spent 15 years as an engineer-turned-entrepreneur in the cowboy days of the high tech industry. That sounds like a simple thing, but back then, in the tech world, it was mostly engineers talking tech, bits and bytes. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Brazil 120

Brazil Entrepreneur Cleveland Cofounder 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

invested, IPO’ed in 2000 for $32/share — stock price now $2. But all that investment in growth and sales force didn’t have a long-term payback, and the actual value of the product to small businesses wasn’t as high as claimed, even though the simplest of customer development reveals this fact (ask any restauranteur).

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

When I first started building Coach, I invested $30k of my own money to get a prototype working and acquire our first half dozen customers, but I (and the contract developer who I was working with) were spread too thin. Long story short, it’s just not 2000's anymore. The quality bar has never been higher. Something has to give.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 23, 2015

Knowing your customers is the single biggest driver of startup success, and there’s no substitute for getting out of the building to learn about their problems and needs. His work led to the development of beneficial microbes that can improve how well plants grow, which Growcentia has commercialized. Get out of the building.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Colorado Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

First, in 1990 the company thought it knew the customer problem to solve, and therefore it knew what solution to build. Second, since it knew the solution, it went into a 8 -year Waterfall engineering development process. Customer Development, Business Model Design and Agile Development could have changed the outcome.

Business Plan 335

Business Plan Customer Business Model Customer Development 335

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I started my last company with 100% off-shore resources because I could never have completed Customer Development at a reasonable cost of money or regulatory burden had I employed US Citizens. Since 2000 we have passed a number of laws and regulations that are killing innovation in the US. September 10, 2009 4:37 AM Dale B.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

what are the most crucial steps to be taken by a new tech startup when outsourcing major part of the tech to IT firms or outsourcing “product development” eg new social media website project? Near shoring development with your team (ex: your team is based in Canada / India) is cool, but not outsourcing. Then launch.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Many of our job postings for Engineering positions describe the company as a place “where the word ‘millions’ is used frequently and in many contexts&#. Though this was 2000 , and all startup & VC blogs we've grown to love didn't exist yet, I did have mentors available. Customer Development Diagnostics over Lunch.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217